“Neither do I.”
Logan steadied his breathing as he watched the hunters. There was no way they could hear him breathing, but he had to calm his thundering heart as sweat slid down his cheeks. The demon clawed at his insides as he stared at Elena’s room.
The idea of her over there, alone and vulnerable, made it impossible for him to pacify the demon. Instead, he let it roll and churn beneath the surface; he suspected he would require its fury soon.
If these bastards hurt one hair on her head, he would destroy every single one of them.
As he rested his hand on the ground, the door to Elena's room opened and she stepped out. One of the hunters broke away from the pack and glided toward her. With the arrogant way he walked, Logan assumed it was Mateo.
Mateo was walking away from them, but the hunter focused on their side of the road didn't turn away.
"What do we do?" Asher inquired.
"We’ll wait to see if she can cause a big enough distraction to get that guy to turn.”
With a hand far steadier than she ever would have believed possible, Elena removed the gun from where she’d tucked it into the waistband of her jeans. Acid burned up her throat at the idea of shooting someone, and she didn’t intend to do that unless she had to, but only a moron would keep their back turned to gunfire.
Pointing the gun toward Mateo, she curled her finger around the trigger. For a second, she contemplated killing him as he’d done to her father, but she couldn’t be the judge and jury when it came to him, no matter how badly she wanted to be.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Mateo shouted as he danced back.
Elena didn’t say anything as she fired three rounds into the pavement, only five feet away from him. He was lucky she was such a good shot; otherwise, a little twitch toward her left and she would have taken off his toes if not his ankles.
All the hunters ducked and threw their hands over their heads. The one focused on the desert dropped behind the car and spun toward the motel.
“I guess that works as a big enough distraction,” Asher said.
“It does. Let’s go.”
Logan hadn’t expected Elena to fire at her hunters, but he wasn’t going to let her distraction go to waste. Rising, he sped across the desert as fast as he could. Leaving Asher behind made him more vulnerable, but he didn’t have time to waste.
Any second now, one of the hunters could turn, see him coming, and raise the alarm. If he got there before that happened, he could take a couple of them out before they knew he was there.
At first, Elena only saw a blur of something emerging from the night and streaking across the road. It wasn’t until the blur was nearly on top of the hunters that she realized it was Logan.
Her jaw was nearly unhinged, but if any of them saw her shock and the direction of her stare, then they would turn to look, and Logan would lose the element of surprise. It was the only advantage they had here.
Instead, she fired another shot into the pavement. This time, she struck so close to Mateo that chunks of asphalt kicked up to pepper him in the leg. He jumped back and shook out his leg. When his head lifted and his eyes locked on hers, rage shone in them as he stalked toward her.
When Elena fired the gun again, he didn’t stop. The others still flinched, but he was no longer falling for her bluff.
“Stay back!” she commanded as she leveled the gun at his chest.
Over Mateo’s shoulder, Logan noiselessly took out one of the hunters before going after another. Mateo’s step faltered for a second before he continued toward her. She shot into the pavement only a few feet in front of him, but the flex of asphalt flying up to bounce off his legs and chest didn’t slow him.
It did piss him off more as a thunderous expression crossed his face. If she didn’t shoot him, he might kill her. Still, her hand trembled on the gun.
Chapter Eighteen
Logan hitthe next hunter in the side of the head. His head snapped to the side. Having reached him a second before, Asher caught the hunter before his body hit the pavement. Out cold, Asher settled the man’s body on the ground as Logan pounced on the next one.
He hit this one in the temple too, but instead of going down, the hunter’s head turned toward him. Logan hadn’t expected this asshole to be so tough, but he didn’t give the hunter time to react before he delivered another blow and successfully knocked him out. By then, Mateo had reached Elena.
Logan went for the next hunter while Asher went for a different one. Logan brought that hunter down as Mateo grabbed the end of Elena’s gun. He jerked it from her hand and yanked her toward him. In a move so fast Logan barely saw it, he slapped her across the face.
The sound of that slap echoed through the night, as did Elena’s gasp of pain. The blow knocked her head to the side, and her hand flew to her face as Mateo grasped her hair.
Logan smashed the hunter’s head off the pavement. The loud crack was accompanied by the potent smell of the hunter’s powerful blood as the man went limp beneath him. Logan had no idea if he’d killed the man or not, and he didn’t care as he leapt off the hunter’s back and raced across the asphalt.
